The 5 best Chromebooks for students in 2023

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  • Posted in Tech News
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Tech specs:

  • 13.3 inch 1920x1080p touch display
  • Intel 1.3GHz Core i5-8200Y processor
  • 16GB RAM
  • 128GB SSD

While Google’s most recent Chromebooks, the Pixelbook Go series, are no longer the fastest Chromebooks books around — that title now goes to the Dell Latitude 5300 Chromebook — the Google Pixelbook Go is more than fast enough for most students. With its low-wattage 1.3GHz Core i5-8200Y processor, it came in with a decent score of 83 on Principled TechnologiesCrXPRT 2 Chromebook benchmark.

The body of the black Pixelbook Go has a magnesium-alloy lid with an underside base featuring a ribbed easy-to-grip design. This makes this Pixelbook hard to drop. Speaking as someone who busted a laptop or two due to falls, this is a good thing. At 2.3lbs and 12.2 x 8.1 x 0.5 inches, it’s also very light.

The model I tested came with 16GB of RAM, a 128GB SSD, and a 13.3 inch 1920x1080p touch display. To power the display, it uses Intel UHD 615 graphics. 

The Corning Glass screen is very nice. With the 615 powering it, it’s bright and renders colors much better than its rivals. This is the one Chromebook I looked at that I’d enjoy watching a movie on. The Pixelbook Go’s 1080p webcam is also superior. I’d have no qualms about Zooming with teachers and classmates with this setup.  

The keyboard, on the other hand, doesn’t have a lot of travel. I could work on it, but I’d prefer pounding on the keys of one of the other models. The touchpad, though, worked just fine for me.

The ports, or rather the lack thereof, are annoying. All you get is a single USB Type-C port and headphone jack on the left and another USB-C port on the right — that’s it. To charge up your Pixelbook Go, you’ll need to use one of those USB-C ports, so anytime you’re charging, you’re down to just one available port.

Still, when it comes to battery life, the Go’s a champ. With a four-cell, 47 W/H battery, it delivered 11.5 hours of useful life. This beat the others easily. That’s not just a benchmark result — back when I was still flying to Europe on business before the pandemic, I could work from Atlanta to Barcelona without a charge.

So, for me, the Go is the ideal do-everything Chromebook. Fast enough to be useful, great screen, and it just keeps going and going and going. The Pixelbook Go model I looked at isn’t cheap at $999, but if you need a great Chromebook that can last through an all-night study binge, this is the one for you. 

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